National Blog

The Debt Ceiling Debate

Earlier today, I posted about a vote that was scheduled for 5pm today, authorizing the Libya military operation. This afternoon, after pressure from the grassroots and a bloc of Republican Senators (led by Rand Paul, Jim DeMint, Ron Johnson, and Mike Lee), Harry Reid pulled the cloture vote on the Libya bill.

This is a big win for those of us who: 1) Didn't want Congress to authorize the Libya intervention 2) Think our national debt is a problem of epic proportions and a matter deserving of vigorous public debate.

Last week, those same senators and activists pressured Harry Reid into cancelling the Senate's July 4th recess to keep the Senate in town to debate the issue of our nation's debt crisis.

Senator Paul's office released this statement shortly after Reid pulled the cloture motion:

“My colleagues and I fought hard last week to cancel the July 4 recess and come back in to address and insist we instead debate the biggest threat to our national security: the ever-increasing debt. In return, Senate Democrat leadership attempted to distract voters from the task at hand this week by introducing unrelated legislation – an attempt that was knocked down handily by the resounding calls from Senate Republicans to address the debt immediately,” Sen. Paul said.

“Now that we are able to move forward and finally focus our attention on the debt, the only solution Democrats are offering to address this problem is a resolution to raise taxes. While my colleagues and I prepare to discuss transparently the issue of solving our debt crisis and balancing our budget, the Democrats have played their only hand and will now have to answer to Americans on why they would rather raise taxes than implement spending cuts and caps.”